Day 23 Go batty and have a great night out

Have you experienced the magic out walking through a wood at dusk and coming across a bat as it darts around the twilight sky in search of its supper? Did you know that if you live in South Gloucestershire, you can visit your local library and pick up a bat audio trail pack with a bat detector and all the information you need to go out exploring one of the bat audio trails created by South Gloucestershire Council's Wild Roots and Wildways Projects.

There are four award winning trails in Hanham, Warmley, Wick and Willsbridge and you can download guides to the trails here and a trail pack, with information about how to use the bat detector and more information about bats in general, here.

If you love all things batty, then take a look at our Bats for Bath website, this contains a podcast for our Browns Folly nature reserve which has a series of old mines, providing a fantastic winter roosting spot for several species of bat. Take a walk around the site and discover what makes it a valuable home to bats, learn about the importance of the species rich grasslands that provide so much food for the 12 species of bat that live here.

Finally, did you know....... that if we had ears as big as the long eared bat, they would reach down to our waists! 

Day 19 Willsbridge Mill

Willsbridge Mill is a beautiful wooded river valley situated between Bristol and Bath. It's a great place for a walk, take some paper and a thick crayon so you can do some brass rubbings along the heritage trail which takes you around the valley.

Before you go though 'Unlock the Mystery of Willsbridge Mill' on our interactive website and find out about it's industrial past and take a look at Mike Dimery's wildlife diary to get a taste of what you might see on your visit. If you have a close look around the wildlife pond you might even be able to find some empty skin cases of the dragonfly nymphs that have crawled up the iris's before climbing out of their skin, spreading their wings and flying off as adults.

Dragonfly nymphs are predators of the pond, eating many of the small invertebrates that also inhabit this aquatic environment. Some species spend up to five years living in the water, shredding their skin several times as they grow. They are pretty ugly looking creatures too. take a look here.